An update on this thread....
We ended up purchasing the remediated mold house and have now lived in it for over a year. Very happy with our purchase. We had the air quality tested in the house in several different areas before we purchased it and the air quality tests came out clean.
With regards to the sump pumps, we have definitely had some heavy downpours where the pumps turned on (2 are hooked up at different locations in the basement, and there's room for 2 more if we ever needed them), so we're glad to have them there when it's needed. And we're happy to say we have not had a drop of moisture come inside the basement during this first year of residence. So we think we're pretty safe in making plans to finish out the basement in the future.
We appreciate the help provided with the thoughtful posts of the members here, it gave us good questions to think about and information that needed to be researched before we made the plunge into home ownership here in PA. And we're happy to be up in the northeast area of the country instead of in the heat of Texas!
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